please empty your brain below
Just keep the "bendies" until their normal service life ends, then replace them with an ordinary low cost double deckers.
(But I guess the "bendies" are getting in the way of Boris's bicycle).

John | 18.05.10 - 8:54 a.m. | #

Last time I came in by train from Stansted I saw what looked like hundreds of bendies rusting away in an old bus garage - I think it is Ash Grove. So Boris is keeping his options open and hasn't sold them yet.

Jeremy | 18.05.10 - 9:41 a.m. | #

new busses costing twice (or was it 3 times) as much as a normal one? Does someone need their head examuined?
In the provinces open backed busses were phased out 30 years ago. Nobody misses them. Time to bury the routemaster for good.

Richard | Homepage | 18.05.10 - 10:29 a.m. | #

I don't think that it really matters what one's opinions are here, Routemaster fan or hater, conductor fan or hater, seat fan or hater, hop-on-hop-off fan or hater, this but looks like a very very expensive and very very ugly comnpromise.

Oh, and Richard, I was travelling on open back buses in Dundee in 1992, so I don't know where you got your figures from, nor how you came to be spokesperson for all the "provinces".

Max Roberts | Homepage | 18.05.10 - 10:42 a.m. | #

I think we should be a little bit careful with criticisms of costs. We need to compare apples with apples. A fair comparison would be with the current hybrid vehicles which are considerably more expensive.

And it may be the case that some initial costs can be justified because they reduce whole life costs - although my gut feeling is that when you look at maintenance costs the comparisons will get even worse.

Pedantic of Purley | 18.05.10 - 10:45 a.m. | #

Oh yes, I'm going to sashay on and off a sash bus, oh yeah!

B | 18.05.10 - 11:22 a.m. | #

Is this a bad dream? Its an ordinary DD but with the added complexity, cost, weight, and maintenance burden of a rear platform and door that outside of central london will never be used while reducing the number of seats. What a joke

Chris | 18.05.10 - 5:41 p.m. | #

Greg Tingey -> Seconded. the ability to hop off (or on!) one of these buses is what everybody misses. welcome back to the new RouteMasters! lovely...

geofftech | Homepage | 19.05.10 - 12:26 a.m. | #

Apparently the new buses are accessible by people using wheelchairs. I don't know whether the bendies are wheelchair-accessible, but the old Routemasters aren't. Having said that, I haven't seen the inside layout design, so I'm also wondering whether wheelchair space has been properly allocated and thought out.

Josie | Homepage | 19.05.10 - 2:23 a.m. | #

All of London's bus routes are already accessible by people using wheelchairs. Bendy buses are probably the most accessible of all.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 19.05.10 - 7:44 a.m. | #

"It'd be much quicker to replace all the bendies with ordinary double deckers."

Which is what's happening, more or less. No bendy routes will be replaced with NB4Ls, since they'll all have buses aged 3 years or less at the time. About 530 new diesel buses are being introduced for the debendification - all to at least Euro V emissions standards (which is noticeably cleaner than older models) but no hybrids.

Tom | Homepage | 19.05.10 - 10:08 a.m. | #

Although the new buses might be accessible by wheelchair users, the allocated space will no doubt be full of prams.

Michael | 19.05.10 - 10:37 a.m. | #

Ok then Greg, thats a lovely idea but its only going to happen if a) your conductor lets you out, and b) if you have a conductor in the first place, which considering the cost and the state of TfL's budget is going to be a rare occurence, and c) with a fleet of only 300 there are only going to be a few routes entirely run with them. Its a vanity project which will make very little difference to anyone except in the pocket.

Chris | 19.05.10 - 11:27 a.m. | #

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/davehillblog/2010/may/19/london-bloggers-criticise-boris-johnson-new-london-bus

Well done you.

Albert | 19.05.10 - 2:22 p.m. | #

But how quickly we have forgotten the joy, nay romance, of hanging onto the pole on the platform of a routemaster bus, wind in your hair, freedom to get off where you please (safety permitting). I'm all for an open platform.

Harriet | Homepage | 22.05.10 - 8:39 p.m. | #

But you were never an advocate of bendies, were you DG?

Don't misunderstand me, along with most others (not to mention cyclist) neither was I.

And, let's face it, politicans can't ever win can they? Boris actually does what he said he'll do if he got elected (getting rid of bendies and re-introducing old-style but modern Routemaster). This has got to be a whole lot better than not actually doing what yoy said you'd do before the election?

BTW: I love the new RM look, and no - I'm not in any way related to Boris :)

Thomas | 10.06.10 - 10:26 p.m. | #











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